Jeepers Creepers gets off to a great start: Trrsh rGina Pltilrps> and Darry lJustIn Long) are sister and brother drrvrng home together durrng the spring break from college. They have a frightening encounter with a beat up old van whrch runs them off the road. Later they pass the same vehicle. now parked IDCSKIC an old church. and see the van driver dumprng something wrapped In what appears to be bloody white sheets down a corrugated rron chute in the ground. Against their best judgement rand oursl. they go back to Investrgate.

This. and the unpleasantrres that follow lthe lyrrcs of the Johnny Mercer song whrch grves the film rts trtle provrde a clue to one particular unpleasantryl. make for a good hour of \.'/ell-crafted suspense. It's lean filmmaking from writer-director Vrctor Salva rwho's a connoisseur of old horror movresi. There's no distracting lame love Interest. no clever—stupid postmodern stylings. no messrn' around iexcept with the audience's nervesi. That sard. after the Identity of lost highway bogeyman is rev --aled. the frlm gurckly runs out of steam. SIIII. there are enough newe-Janglrng set-pieces to make thrs worth the rrde. (Miles Frelder)

I Genera/ release from Fr/ 15) Oct.

DRAMA EL MAR (18) 112mins COO

Tension explosively released

Has recent Spanrsh cinema become especially Interested rn rrte of passage as violent realrsatron, and usrng the Spanrsh Cryil War as backdrop and perhaps even excuse for childhood nirsadventures and bullyrng’?

Whether adoptrng the full blown klnetlc force of the forthcornrng The Dew/s Backbone. the trip down memory lane of Butterfly's Tongue or the oft—the—wall psychology of 5/ Mar. chrldhood desparr rs amplrfred by polrtrcal horror. August Vrllaronga's 5/ Mar. though. is the most elusive of the three. Here the war serves perhaps as a precursor to a chrldhood vrolence that Is rtself not absolutely central: local krds watch as one kid stabs another to death and then krlls IIIIIISOII. Villaronga explores the after-effects as the onlookers grow up and reunrte rn a strange sanatorium. Is the double impact of vrolence rn the historical past and Violence rn one's rrnrnedrate crrcle years before rnevrtably gorng to result rn vrolence In the present? Villaronga grves a heady sprn to the Idea that Franco's Sparn was necessarrly oppressrve: here the aftermath of the Spanish Crvrl War Indicates bottled tension explosrvely released. rTony McKrbbrnl I l‘r/mfrouse, Ed/nburg/r from Mort 2.)}? Oct.